META TAKES ON UK ONLINE SAFETY RULES AS TECH FIRMS ACCUSED OF USING COURTS TO DELAY IMPLEMENTATION

Tue 22 September 2026:

Meta has launched a new legal challenge against the UK’s media regulator Ofcom over the implementation of the Online Safety Act.

According to a report by The Guardian on Sunday, lawyers for the company have appealed against the decision to place WhatsApp and Instagram in a category subject to additional duties, including greater transparency, increased user controls and measures to tackle fraudulent advertising and illegal content.

The challenge is the latest in a series of legal actions brought by technology companies against Ofcom.

In May, Meta also challenged Ofcom’s methodology for calculating fees, arguing that charges should not be based on a company’s global revenue.

Under the Online Safety Act, companies can face fines of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, or £18 million ($24 million), whichever is higher.

TikTok and X are also taking legal action over the amount of information they are required to provide to Ofcom.

__________________________________________________________________________

https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22

__________________________________________________________________________

A senior director at the regulator told a committee in the House of Lords on Tuesday that Ofcom was “operating in a highly litigious environment”, including facing two actions by Meta and others from “a raft of services” bringing judicial reviews against the body for trying to collect data.

“We absolutely are looking to drive change in the best way we can,” Oliver Griffiths, the Ofcom group director for online safety, told peers hearing evidence about the Online Safety Act. “We have all come to work to make this happen, but, if we run unnecessary risks, we are going to get absolutely clobbered legally by deep-pocketed individuals and firms.”

Meta said its challenges were “not challenges to the law itself, but how Ofcom has interpreted it.”

The company said such challenges were a normal part of establishing a new regulatory regime and would help ensure the law was applied “proportionately, accurately and consistently.”

The government said it will continue introducing legislation to regulate the internet as technology develops.

Lisa Nandy, the secretary for digital, culture, media and sport, vowed last week to keep introducing legislation to govern the internet. “I think we’re going to have to start getting used to the idea, actually, that government is going to be far quicker, far more interventionist, and I think I’m going to have to see the law updated regularly because tech is changing so fast that we’ve got to be able to respond,” she told the Sky News Electoral Dysfunction podcast.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

__________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

WhatsApp CHANNEL
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22